Sleeping Your Way To Better Vision

Corneal Refractive Therapy Works While You Sleep

CHICAGO -- Imagine going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning with better vision.

Many people are seeing a crystal clear view of the world, thanks to a new eye treatment. If you don't like wearing glasses or contact lenses all day and you're afraid to have eye surgery to correct your vision, there's another option that may be worth considering.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a treatment to improve your vision while you sleep.

At the time when most people are taking their contact lenses out for the day, Daleene Jackson is putting hers in.

"Every night I need to put them in at 9 or 10 o'clock," Jackson said.

Then, while she sleeps, her contact lenses are working to improve her vision. She removes the lenses when she wakes in the morning.

"I wake up about 7 or 8 a.m. and I can see 20/20 'til about 9 o'clock the next night," Jackson said.

The treatment is called corneal refractive therapy, or CRT. Optometrist Barry Eiden said it's a nonsurgical way to correct vision so you don't have to wear glasses or contact lenses during the day. With CRT, a special contact lense is used to flatten the cornea.

"That flattening, in essence, changes the focal power of the eye," Eiden explained, "enabling the nearsighted eye to see objects far away clearly."

Not having to wear contact lenses or glasses on the playing field is why Dan Brandys, 17, turned to CRT.

"I couldn't do any sports, first off, with glasses," Brandys said. "Now, I don't have to worry about it."

Fifteen-year-old Brandon Liss said his vision improved right away with CRT.

"I put them (the lenses) in the night before, and when I woke up the next day, I could see pretty much perfectly. It was pretty amazing," he said.

But corneal refractive therapy isn't for everyone. It will help most people who are nearsighted or who have astigmatism, but it won't work if you are farsighted, and the results are not permanent.

"The effect lasts anywhere between 24, sometimes up to 48, or even up to 72 hours," Eiden said.

But those temporary results are why many people are choosing CRT over eye surgery. If there's a problem with the CRT treatment, it's reversible.

"I'm afraid of the surgery, I guess," said Jackson. "I know a lot of people that have had it that have gotten good results out of it. I just was one of those chickens."

For Jackson, CRT is just fine.

"I don't have to worry about taking contacts out to do any sports or anything like that. So, it's definitely made it easier for me. It's simplified things," Jackson said.

The CRT contact lens program will cost between $800 to $2,000. Usually, it is not covered by insurance.

For more information on Dr. Barry Eiden and Dr. Amber Dawson's CRT work, visit their Web site here.

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